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Thursday, September 14, 2017

FX's American Horror Story (2.02) returned to top the cable world on Tuesday, but the -27% was easily the show's steepest year-to-year decline for a premiere in series history. But it's a series that has been famous for its huge declines in the post-premiere weeks, so there is room to make up ground if it settles more smoothly this time.

On Sunday, Fear the Walking Dead (0.78) was back with yet another two-hour episode and yet another new series low. Ugly year-to-year trends have been a recurring theme for FTWD all season, but this episode was less than half of the 1.62 at which it returned for the second half of its last season in August 2016.

Both HBO and Starz traded out their Sunday crown jewels (Game of Thrones and Power, respectively) for much more modest performers as we approach the fall. On HBO, that meant new drama The Deuce (0.24). It fell at the low end of a long line of meh Sunday HBO drama premieres in the last year, including Big Little Lies (0.31) and The Young Pope (0.30) and The Night Of (0.26). (Though BLL and Night Of both had massive post-premiere growth.) The Deuce also fell well behind the Ballers (0.41) and Insecure (0.40) comedy duo that is still running in the 10:00 hour.

Meanwhile, Starz had the third season premiere of Outlander (0.31), which eked out a win in the head-to-head against the other premium channels. It was down 21% from its last premiere in April 2016, when it was still airing on Saturday.

FULL TABLE:

Show

Episode

Season

Name

Net

Ep

A18-49

Last

Seas

Avg

y2y

Proj

ProjPlus

Skew

Male

American Horror Story

FX

1

2.02

7

2.02

-27%

1.14

111

65%

42%

Rick and Morty

ADUL

6

1.32

-4%

3

1.34

+31%

1.31

107

68%

68%

Ballers

HBO

8

0.41

-2%

3

1.01

+75%

0.99

81

61%

59%

Fear the Walking Dead

AMC

9

0.78

-6%

3

0.93

-56%

0.81

66

48%

53%

The Haves and the Have Nots

OWN

22

0.68

-6%

4

0.65

-21%

0.65

53

33%

34%

Insecure

HBO

8

0.40

+3%

2

0.57

+263%

0.57

47

64%

52%

American Dad!

TBS

21

0.46

-12%

13

0.52

-3%

0.52

43

68%

60%

The Sinner

USA

6

0.55

+6%

1

0.49

0.51

41

37%

34%

Snowfall

FX

10

0.39

-11%

1

0.43

0.43

35

56%

60%

The Guest Book

TBS

7

0.37

-8%

1

0.40

0.39

32

45%

49%

Preacher

AMC

12

0.33

+3%

2

0.40

-37%

0.40

33

43%

60%

Greenleaf

OWN

13

0.35

+6%

2

0.37

-40%

0.37

30

34%

31%

Suits

USA

9

0.40

+3%

7

0.37

-23%

0.37

30

33%

47%

Being Mary Jane

BET

18

0.33

0%

4

0.37

-50%

0.37

30

53%

24%

The Strain

FX

9

0.34

-11%

4

0.36

-13%

0.36

30

47%

60%

Shooter

USA

8

0.36

+3%

2

0.35

-27%

0.35

28

35%

57%

The Last Ship

TNT

5

0.27

-21%

4

0.31

-35%

0.32

26

24%

58%

Outlander

STAR

1

0.31

4

0.31

-21%

0.18

14

26%

People of Earth

TBS

7

0.28

-10%

2

0.30

-6%

0.30

25

57%

60%

Talking Dead: Fear

AMC

6

0.21

-32%

2

0.30

-62%

0.23

19

45%

53%

The Fosters

FREE

9

0.33

+38%

5

0.28

-26%

0.28

23

51%

26%

Survivor's Remorse

STAR

3

0.14

-39%

4

0.26

-32%

0.25

21

51%

38%

Ray Donovan

SHOW

5

0.20

-13%

5

0.25

-22%

0.24

20

29%

55%

The Deuce

HBO

1

0.24

1

0.24

0.20

20

37%

Chesapeake Shores

HALL

6

0.24

+4%

2

0.23

-22%

0.23

19

16%

31%

Teen Wolf

MTV

17

0.21

-5%

6

0.22

-46%

0.22

18

61%

44%

Younger

TVLA

11

0.24

-14%

4

0.22

+28%

0.22

18

38%

26%

Odd Mom Out

BRAV

9

0.18

+12%

3

0.19

+3%

0.20

17

45%

24%

The Bold Type

FREE

10

0.16

-6%

1

0.15

0.15

12

60%

18%

Blood Drive

SYFY

13

0.11

-8%

1

0.13

0.14

12

37%

64%

Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce

BRAV

4

0.13

0%

4

0.13

-10%

0.13

10

43%

You're the Worst

FXX

2

0.13

-7%

4

0.13

-10%

0.09

9

61%

Halt and Catch Fire

AMC

2

0.13

+30%

4

0.12

-12%

0.11

9

48%

Will

TNT

10

0.09

-10%

1

0.11

0.11

9

36%

The Cablemetrics table can be sorted by clicking any of the categories at the top (and a second click will sort in the other direction.) After having sorted by a category, you can hold SHIFT and click another category to sort by the second category within the first.